Not everyone should start a Sequence from the top. You may have sent someone the first two emails yourself, or you're moving prospects over from another tool partway through their outreach. Now you can add them at the stage they're up to. They skip the stages before it and carry on from there.
Beta: Starting recipients at a later stage is part of the Sequences beta. Once your workspace is in the beta, turn on Sequences Redesign in Mixmax Labs. Your admin can switch it on for everyone or leave it up to each person.
Add recipients at a later stage
For now, you choose a later starting stage through Claude or another AI assistant connected to Mixmax through the Mixmax MCP.
Ask your assistant to add the recipients to your Sequence and say which stage they start at. Everyone can start at the same stage, or each person at their own.
Your assistant adds them without activating them, so nothing sends yet. They're listed on the Sequence's Recipients tab under Added (not activated).
Review and activate them in Mixmax, below, or ask your assistant to activate them.
For example:
"Add [email protected] to my Q4 Follow-up sequence, starting at stage 3."
"Add these 20 people to Webinar Invite. They've already had the first two emails, so start them at stage 3."
"Add [email protected] to Webinar Invite at stage 1 and [email protected] at stage 4."
Review and activate in Mixmax
Open the Sequence in the new editor and go to the Recipients tab.
Click Added (not activated) in the sidebar. The recipients you've added but not activated open in a list, and anyone starting later reads Starts at Stage number.
To check what someone will get, click Personalize. Their starting stage is marked, and the stages before it are grayed out and labeled Skipped. You can personalize the stages they'll get.
Click Review & Activate. If your Sequence's first stage isn't an automated email, the button reads Activate Recipients.
What happens when they start
They skip every stage before their starting stage. No emails send and no tasks are created for those skipped stages.
Their starting stage goes out the way a first stage would, without waiting on a delay or a reply condition.
The stages after it follow with their usual delays and conditions.
If their starting stage is an email, it starts a new email thread, since there's no earlier email for it to reply to. If that stage has no subject of its own, as follow-ups often don't, Mixmax uses the subject of the nearest earlier email stage, without "Re:". A subject you personalized for them, or the subject of their A/B variant, is used first.
If they start on a task, like a call or a to-do, the first email after it starts a new thread the same way.
Mixmax checks variables only for the stages they'll get, including a subject borrowed from an earlier stage. A variable used only in a stage they skip doesn't need a value.
See where recipients started
With no stage selected, the Recipients tab shows an Entered at column once anyone in the Sequence started after Stage 1. It tells you where each recipient started, like Stage 3 (late).
Select a stage in the sidebar to see what happened to everyone at that stage. Someone who started after it reads Skipped, with the stage they were added at and the date, like "Added at Stage 3 on Oct 28". Above the list, click Skipped to show just those recipients.
On the Insights tab, each stage's results only count the recipients who got that stage, so people who started later don't change the numbers for the stages they skipped.
FAQ
Can I choose the starting stage in Mixmax?
Not yet. For now, add them through your AI assistant. Once they're added, you can review, personalize and activate them in Mixmax.
Can I move someone who's already active to a different stage?
No. You choose the starting stage when you add someone. Once they're active, they carry on from where they are.
Can I add someone who's already in the Sequence?
Only if the Sequence lets people receive it more than once. Otherwise, if anyone you name is already in the Sequence or has been through it, your assistant can't add that group and tells you who.
Why won't my assistant start someone at a later stage?
Check that Sequences Redesign is on in Mixmax Labs, and that your MCP settings let your assistant create and edit Sequences. The stage you ask for also has to exist in the Sequence.
Can I do this through the Mixmax API?
Yes. Add recipients with draftOnly set to true and a startStage for each, then activate them. The same Sequences Redesign setting applies.
What does this look like in the previous Sequence editor?
You can't add recipients at a later stage from it. Recipients who started later show the stages they skipped as Skipped. Switch to the new editor to see where each recipient started.